ALMOST three-quarters of a billion mobile phone text messages are now being sent every day, with children spearheading the explosion, industry figures have shown.

The fast-growing craze is strongest in Europe, and the industry believes the number of messages worldwide transmitted between phones will soon top a billion daily.

Young people are leading the expansion, according to the figures from the GSM Association, which represents network operators and phone manufacturers.

With it has come the new language of "txt", with children across the globe using the same short-cuts.

The GSM Association estimated that by the end of 2001, up to 250bn messages would have been sent this year.

This is expected to grow further with the impact of technology enabling people to send text messages to phones from the internet.

New services such as sports results, betting games and stock market news sent directly to mobile phones will also fuel the growth.

Robert Conway, chief executive of the GSM Association, said: "What is remarkable is that kids in places like Australia and New Zealand are using the same short-cuts and word formations as the kids in the UK and Europe. It has created a new global language."

Scandinavian countries were particularly hooked on text messaging, but the Philippines and other nations in the Far East were catching up fast, he said.